RE: Our Homeless Experience 7: The Homeless Shelter, Part 2
Yep. It is insane. There was a story in the paper last year about a woman who was rendered unconscious at the hands of her abuser, and sure enough, CPS stepped in, and took her children away, AND charged her with "Failure to Protect." How the 'ell is someone supposed to protect their children when they are unconscious? Seriously? But, you see, we have 9 private prisons here, and the state is hit with a hefty fine if they fall below occupancy quotas. The state has to maintain their prisoner populations. It's a huge mess that has destroyed Oklahoma. The top three expenditures for the state in 2017 were the Dept. of Health, the Dept. of Corrections, and the Dept. of Transportation.
The Department of Education didn't even make the top ten.
http://oklahomawatchdata.org/state-salaries
Massive corruption abounds, and it has done nothing but send this state right into the bottom of the barrel. It's the dregs of the swamp, so to speak, and the children of Oklahoma are the ones who are not only paying the price, but they are also the ones who will be tasked with attempting to clean up this huge mess.
The state itself should be charged with "Failure to Protect," but that is just my humble opinion.
A quota to fill the prisoner population... what in the world?? Increase crime populations to fill the quota or make absurd laws to make it happen. Not a place I would want to visit. How is it that there is still a population there?
Oklahoma isn't the only state where this is occurring:
"Report Finds Two-Thirds of Private Prison Contracts Include “Lockup Quotas”"
"An analysis of private prison contracts from across the United States reveals that state and local governments commonly enter into agreements that require them to keep prisons filled or pay for unused, empty beds."
Source:
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2015/jul/31/report-finds-two-thirds-private-prison-contracts-include-lockup-quotas/
That's just sick!
Agreed. It's sad, too. My apologies for hijacking @hickorymack 's post, the problems are all inter-related, and the more we all know about it, the more effectively we can take action in our own communities. The current system is simply non-sustainable, IMO, and will eventually devour itself. That being said, it is likely to devour innocent people as well. We just cannot let that happen.
The fight is there and its real. We need strong people to fight back.